Fed Up With Magellan Repair Support.

[+NevaP]

I was happily getting acquainted with my new Magellan eXplorist XL (it was performing very well under tree cover) when I tripped and the unit hit a rock. All I could get on it was a blank blue screen.

 

So, as instructed to do on the website I e-mailed Magellan repairs for a repair number and instructions.

 

THIS WAS EIGHT DAYS AGO!

 

Having received nothing except the automatic your request has been received response I sent another e-mail two days ago.

 

Today I received TWO requests (two different case numbers) to complete their customer satisfication survey.

 

I gave them my opinion of their service and sent a third request for repair service.

 

I'll keep you all informed of my progress in this matter.

Edited June 16, 2006 by NevaP

[vagabond]

use thier 800 number for better results. I waited almost 2 weeks on email before calling. and got right thru.

Edited June 16, 2006 by vagabond

[+embra]

The consensus seems to be that email is the pits; the phone may require some long waits sometimes (it's good to have some work to do or a book to read), but you'll ultimately get results much faster.

[+Team Cotati]

These horror stories about Magellan no service are becoming all to common. That is why, if my Gold dies before I do, I am moving to Garmin.

[+YuccaPatrol]

I'm surprised that anyone still buys from this company. . . .

[+NevaP]

I probably will have to try the phone. I hate phone menus, I hate waiting on hold, I'm hard of hearing and I often can't translate Bombay accents so I always give e-mail a try first.

 

If I haven't heard from them by Monday I will set aside the day for phone work.

[+Miragee]

Good luck. A friend of mine spent hours on the phone, and subsequent days on the phone, trying to get an RMA for a Magellan that was still covered by the original warranty and an Extended warranty.

 

He finally got it back, but in the meantime he purchased the Garmin GPSMap60CSx.

 

A friend of his, who didn't have a GPSr, was the recipient of the Magellan a few months ago and it is broken again . . .

 

and now, since the serial number of the replacement unit doesn't match the Extended Warranty, another battle with Magellan has erupted . . .

[+Team Cotati]

I'm surprised that anyone still buys from this company. . . .

 

Ya, me too. Seems as though everyone has to learn the hard way.

[+geognerd]

I probably will have to try the phone. I hate phone menus, I hate waiting on hold, I'm hard of hearing and I often can't translate Bombay accents so I always give e-mail a try first.

 

If I haven't heard from them by Monday I will set aside the day for phone work.

Neva, I have had very good luck calling Magellan as soon as they open up at 8AM Central time. I have never had to wait more than 15 minutes. My most recent call to them was to get an RMA number for returning the eX400 that fell off my car, got run over, and had some slight damage to the display. My call was answered immediately after I waded through the phone menus, so I had zero wait time. The whole call took 10 minutes. I had an RMA# and the address to ship my unit to. I was assured the damage was covered and I would receive a replacement within 21 days. I've been waiting 10 days. We'll see if they come through on their promise.

 

They do use Indian people at the call center. Being young, my hearing is fairly intact. Most of the time I had no problems understanding them, though I did have to ask them to repeat themselves a few times.

 

Good luck!

[+geognerd]

I was assured the damage was covered and I would receive a replacement within 21 days. I've been waiting 10 days. We'll see if they come through on their promise.

And wouldn't you know it, UPS just dropped off my eX400. However, Thales/Magellan didn't replace the whole unit. Just the display. The case is still scuffed up but a little cleaner than it was when I sent it in.

[Team Sidewinder]

Garmin most likely would have sent a factory refurbished unit back to you. New case, plus new display, you would never just get the bad part replaced in the old case and have it sent back to you. Garmin is winning people over through high quality customer support.

[+Miragee]

That is what they did for me when I sent my working-perfectly Vista C in for a repair of the rubber gasket around the outside.

[+GOT GPS?]

If they were really backlogged in the repair department, they might just try to plug in the old GPS, and a new GPS into a computer and transfer the USER Data, and a new UNLOCK code if needed, and quickly mail back to you, to reduce the baclog of repairs(Garmin)

 

If your GPS accidentally got chopped in half in the cutting machine at work, they might send it back to you, held together with clear packaging tape, and a quick n dirty soldering job to fix it(Magelllan)

 

If your GPS got run over by a steamroller, probably neither company would want to send you a new replacement, and Garmin would want to charge you the flat rate repair charge before sending you a replacement unit.

[+GrizzFlyer]

I dropped my Magellan MeriGold in the river, it was in there for two minutes. Fished it out, it was all wet inside. Magellan advertises this unit as waterproof and meeting the IPX7 standard, which is 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes. It was in 4 inches of water for 2 minutes, and completely wet. (Everything was buttoned up properly). Anyway, tried to contact them, was on hold for 45 minutes. I finally hung up, and sent them an email. That was 5 working days ago, no reply.

 

After reading about all the trouble others have had with their miserable "support", and my experience, the replacement is not going to be their Explorist XL, it'll be a Garmin 60 cx. Magellan has gone down the tubes.

[+GOT GPS?]

I dropped my Magellan MeriGold in the river, it was in there for two minutes. Fished it out, it was all wet inside. Magellan advertises this unit as waterproof and meeting the IPX7 standard, which is 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes. It was in 4 inches of water for 2 minutes, and completely wet. (Everything was buttoned up properly). Anyway, tried to contact them, was on hold for 45 minutes. I finally hung up, and sent them an email. That was 5 working days ago, no reply.

 

After reading about all the trouble others have had with their miserable "support", and my experience, the replacement is not going to be their Explorist XL, it'll be a Garmin 60 cx. Magellan has gone down the tubes.

 

Alot of those GPS units are only waterproof when brand new, and loose the waterproofness overtime, even my GPS 60Cx, where I had squeezed that GPS around the middle between the two halves of the plastic housing, the Plastic actually gave-in a little bit, where it should have been waterproof. I don't think my new GPS is waterproof at all after the rough treatment it has gotten. How I also know the GPS is NOT waterproof, is the fact that I am getting lint on the backside(inside) of the plastic window of the Map60Cx. My older Map60C was not as bad as the new one, and it seems more fragile than the 60C.

 

Any GPS, when it strikes the water quickly can take up some water as it hits, whereas, a GPS that is set in a bathroom sink will be waterproof. Water always wins if it is given a chance, and you don't want any GPS to strike the water from 5 feet above, and a GPS that is knocked out of your hands can hit the water quite hard.

 

What people need to do near water, is to put the GPS in a waterproof pouch, to protect the GPS from water intrusion

 

My eXplorist XL has been pretty nice, but it is a heavy brick that will sink to the bottom of a lake in an instant, but it seems to be more waterproof than the 60Cx.

Edited June 17, 2006 by GOT GPS?

[Twister65]

As others have mentioned, call them. I got tired of week-long waits for a canned response asking me for info that I had already sent. So I called them one day during my lunch hour at work. I got their Customer Service fairly quickly, explained the situation and she transferred me to their tech support for the RA #.

 

The tech was a little difficult to understand and I had to literally spell every part of my address to him. Once he realized I was in Canada, he had to put me on hold to get me the warranty repair contact info for Canada. He came back with a phone number of an electronics repair place here in Ontario to call. Not including the weekend, it took about 3 days from shipping my eXplorist 200 to them, to receiving it back at my door (unit replaced).

 

I love both of my eXplorists, but the hassles of dealing directling with Magellan/Thales left a bitter taste in my mouth and I'll give a serious look at Garmin the next time.

 

Scott

[Land Man]

I've had my own share of grief with Magellan. I can't imagine ever owning another Magellan after my experience.

[+NevaP]

 

Well it appears I will no longer need the services of Magellan repairs at this point in time. Stunod came out from Illinois for a brief visit to Nebraska and I pulled out the eXplorist to show him how it would only turn on to a blank blue screen and wouldn't turn off after that.

 

I stuck in some batteries (something I have done a dozen times since I dropped it, using several different sets of batteries, most of them new, getting only the blank screen) and .................. the blasted thing lit up, up came eXplorist XL, up came the searching for satellites screen, up came the coords of my house, the date and the time of day and it worked perfectly.

 

Stunod had touched it briefly before I put the batteries in. He claims full credit for the repairs.

 

I'm not sure if he is accepting only Magellans at his repair service or if his magic works on other brands. Better contact him before shipping off your damaged units.

 

I think I will pick up a used Garmin Legend or something as a backup for the my old Magellan 315 which is the backup for the XL. I drop things a lot.

[+timk54]

 

Well it appears I will no longer need the services of Magellan repairs at this point in time. Stunod came out from Illinois for a brief visit to Nebraska and I pulled out the eXplorist to show him how it would only turn on to a blank blue screen and wouldn't turn off after that.

 

I stuck in some batteries (something I have done a dozen times since I dropped it, using several different sets of batteries, most of them new, getting only the blank screen) and .................. the blasted thing lit up, up came eXplorist XL, up came the searching for satellites screen, up came the coords of my house, the date and the time of day and it worked perfectly.

 

Stunod had touched it briefly before I put the batteries in. He claims full credit for the repairs.

 

I'm not sure if he is accepting only Magellans at his repair service or if his magic works on other brands. Better contact him before shipping off your damaged units.

 

I think I will pick up a used Garmin Legend or something as a backup for the my old Magellan 315 which is the backup for the XL. I drop things a lot.

 

Don't get your hopes up. My Sport trak suddenly shut itself off and wouldn't turn on again. the next day it turned on but after a few minutes turned itself off again . It is on the shelf now and My Vista Cx is my sidekick now.

[+NevaP]

 

Well it appears I will no longer need the services of Magellan repairs at this point in time. Stunod came out from Illinois for a brief visit to Nebraska and I pulled out the eXplorist to show him how it would only turn on to a blank blue screen and wouldn't turn off after that.

 

I stuck in some batteries (something I have done a dozen times since I dropped it, using several different sets of batteries, most of them new, getting only the blank screen) and .................. the blasted thing lit up, up came eXplorist XL, up came the searching for satellites screen, up came the coords of my house, the date and the time of day and it worked perfectly.

 

Stunod had touched it briefly before I put the batteries in. He claims full credit for the repairs.

 

I'm not sure if he is accepting only Magellans at his repair service or if his magic works on other brands. Better contact him before shipping off your damaged units.

 

I think I will pick up a used Garmin Legend or something as a backup for the my old Magellan 315 which is the backup for the XL. I drop things a lot.

 

Don't get your hopes up. My Sport trak suddenly shut itself off and wouldn't turn on again. the next day it turned on but after a few minutes turned itself off again . It is on the shelf now and My Vista Cx is my sidekick now.

 

Right, I don't trust it. I've been turning it on a couple times a day to see if it still works (so far it does). I may take it out caching today and see what happens. As I said I'm looking for a backup for the backup. Can one ever own too many GPS units?

[+Team JSAM]

I was happily getting acquainted with my new Magellan eXplorist XL (it was performing very well under tree cover) when I tripped and the unit hit a rock. All I could get on it was a blank blue screen.

 

So, as instructed to do on the website I e-mailed Magellan repairs for a repair number and instructions.

 

THIS WAS EIGHT DAYS AGO!

 

Having received nothing except the automatic your request has been received response I sent another e-mail two days ago.

 

Today I received TWO requests (two different case numbers) to complete their customer satisfication survey.

 

I gave them my opinion of their service and sent a third request for repair service.

 

I'll keep you all informed of my progress in this matter.

 

I feel your pain anytime I have tried to contact them its like pulling teeth, I have been happy with my magellen so far but when I upgrade it will be a Garmin!

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Magellan has been trying as best they can to de-emphasize the handheld market and pushing the car GPS market (i.e. their Roadmate series). I bet if you had a broken RoadMate you'd be getting much better and faster service.

[+NevaP]

Update:

 

13 days after I sent Magellan my first e-mail request for a repair authorization number and 6 days after I sent my second I received two e-mails with different case numbers but identical wording. Both told me to call an 800 number to get a repair authorization.

 

Don't use e-mail to contact this bunch.

 

The unit which miraculously repairrd itself is still working so I am filing the replies away , keeping my fingers crossed and shopping for a Garmin.